Friday, October 28, 2011

Walmart might have over-reached

So my coolant light came on in my 2008 VW Beetle. Turns out that I am in charge of my vehicle's maintenance. And I'd been thinking my husband was handling it.

When he said, "You're supposed to get your oil changed regularly", I replied, "I thought you took care of that? I've always bragged about how wonderful you are for taking care of those things"

Didn't work. I'm in charge.I'm supposed to read some little sticker in the upper corner of my windshield. Fortunately, the little plastic sticker proved I was only 34 miles passed my due date.

"Tires, too?", I squeakedsince I've had a low pressure light come on several times over the past 8 months.

"Just putting air in them. You are NOT in charge of replacing tires - you wouldn't get the right kind", he replied.Needless to say, my husband will have lots of time to watch sports this weekend - it's not like he and I will be sharing any...quality time.

So, I thought, the most economical way (money and time) to get this darn oil change/fluid top-off would be to combine it with my $5 Friday grocery shopping trip.Fortunately for me, there is a Walmart next to the grocery store.The fella there (who I suspect has maybe played too many contact sports), was fuzzy on details. Every time I mentioned the coolant light, he said they would top off wiper fluid.

So he tapped, tapped, tapped on a little handheld device that looks like those old brick cell phones (that's where they went!), and got my name wrong. Kathy turned into GABA. I can see how that would happen. Similar sound and, frankly, GABA is a much more common name.Sign here, he said. I said, did you write down coolant fluid? And suddenly, he remembered that they are not allowed to touch coolant fluid or brake fluid. Well, I still needed the oil changed so I autographed his brick phoneand went shopping.

That's when things went downhill. I swear, whenever a person is harboring unfair resentment toward their spouse, bad things happen.

After the 1 hour, I tried to wheel my little shopping cart from the grocery store to the Walmart auto location. My little cart had some kind of Lo-Jack!! It locked a wheel about 50 yards from my destination and no amount of kicking got it going again. So I had to fetch a Walmart cart and transfer all my $5 treasures (strawberry topped cheesecake!).

At Walmart, I had to wait 20 minutes behind a woman who wanted proof that she (well, her car) had received the super premium oil as stated on her bill. I totally understand that. I don't understand how there is only 1 register and - despite super-premium woman's request - they could not suspend her transaction and let me go ahead. (She might be my new and best imaginary friend yet).

After satisfying super-premium woman, it was my turn. I waited several minutes while the cashier tried to scan my repair order before telling me: it won't ring up because they cancelled your order.

So, I had waited over 20 minutes just to get my keys back. They hadn't called my cell (after collecting the number upon check-in), they spelled my name wrong, and as I looked over the repair order with the prominent CANCELLED covering most of it, I found that they had spelled canister incorrectly.

I don't really believe that correctly spelling canister would've assisted in loosening it, but this GABA is never trusting Walmart with anything automotive again.